Love Is Love, and Care Is an Inheritance

On my wedding day, I wore a dress that already knew how to hold love.

On September 11, 1941, my Grandma Lucille Anderson wore this same dress when she married. It had been stored carefully in a dress bag for 79 years, waiting quietly. The skirt is original. The history is intact. The love is unmistakable.

Of course, some changes were needed. My amazing mom lovingly redesigned the top because I am not built quite like my Grams was. With the help of James’ mom, LynnPam, we added beautiful lace and fabric to bring it back to life in a way that honored both the past and the present.

I kept thinking that if my grandma were watching, she would have thrown her hands in the air, laughed, and called my mom a “marvel.” That word fits her perfectly. She learned it from her own mother, just as my Aunt Marilyn carries it too. Care, creativity, and devotion run through the women in my family like a quiet inheritance.

My grandma was one of the great loves of my life. I was her primary caregiver, and those years shaped me in ways I couldn’t fully understand at the time. Caring for her was demanding, sacred, exhausting, and deeply meaningful. It taught me that love is not only something we feel, but something we do, over and over again, often without recognition.

That experience is the heart behind The Caregiving Corner.

This space exists because caregiving is love in action. It is presence. It is patience. It is adapting, adjusting, and showing up even when it’s hard. It is honoring where we come from while making room for what is becoming.

Wearing my grandmother’s dress on my wedding day felt like a blessing that crossed generations. It reminded me that love evolves, families change, and still, love remains.

Love is love.

And when it’s cared for, protected, and passed down, it becomes something that holds us long after the moment has passed.

I hope my Grams was smiling that day. I felt her with me. And I carry her with me still, in this work, in this space, and in the belief that no act of care is ever wasted.